I was born in Moscow, USSR in 1977 and in 1986 I left the USSR with my parents for about five years to live in Rabat, Morocco, only to return to a totally different country now known as Russia. My first steps into the cockpit of Tu-154 meant it was only a matter of time before I fell in love with aviation. Following my graduation from the University of Foreign Languages, I began work as an interpreter for the famous NPP Zvezda company under the directorship of Guy Severin. It was at there where I met the first cosmonaut to enter space, Aleksey Leonov , USSR and Russian hero Sergey Krikalev, USSR and Russian test pilots, Anatoly Kvochur, Victor Pugachev and Victor Menitsky along with many other well-known aviation legends. I was also very fortunate to participate in a special ground test of the ORLAN-DMA space suit and space controller and was responsible for the ejection seats static display at MAKS 2001.
By incredible circumstance, I later worked for the Central Institute of Aviation Motors (CIAM) in the area of customer relations, which allowed me to create many new contracts within the field of aviation. One of the most interesting tests I viewed at CIAM was the start and full afterburner test of a SOUZ engine, I also got to see an AL-31 engine at full afterburner in a special test area. However, most interesting was witnessing the operation of a hypersonic ducted engine running at Mach 7 in the hypersonic wind tunnel. I later worked at Sukhoi Civil Aircraft until the roll-out of the first SSJ-100 and later for Transaero as an Aircraft on Ground (AOG) 24/7 officer. I presently work at Sky Gates Airlines in a similar role but now with two 747-400’s in beautiful livery albeit without any passengers to damage anything onboard (although, there are times when ground services and load managers can be worse than a plane full of passengers!). Other hobbies include – Travel and Motorcycles

Regarding my photography, I have always dreamed of taking high quality pictures and seven years on, I’m still learning

Roman Bagrov